Women in Saudi Arabia are banned from driving and cannot travel without being authorised by a male guardian.

Women are banned from driving and cannot travel without being authorized by a male guardian. This may sound absolutely antiquated but it is happening in Saudi Arabia. It is illegal for women to even open a bank account.

In an interview with Abdul Ali Musa, Imam of Masjid al-Islam in Berkeley, PressTV has discussed the issue further more.

PressTV: In international circles, many times the Saudi's version of what they may call Islam is portrayed as real Islam, especially regarding women and the overall harshness of what is practiced in Saudi Arabia. Is this done on purpose to paint a dark picture of Islam when the reality is that the majority of Muslims do not consider what is happening in Saudi Arabia as Islamic?

Musa: The Saudi version is the Western version. I was just reading a BBC report about a new commission of women in the United Nations. They said Iran does not deserve a seat, but Saudi Arabia was given the seat. That was a new opening for one country.

Now in Saudi Arabia women don't have right to vote. They don't drive cars and their education level is very low, while we know that in Iran women can drive and it's been ten years in the educational system that women have passed men in the universities, I mean by numbers. Then on the same level, not only do they drive, not only do they have a right of high level education, they also have been given the right to vote.

So we see that the West and the United States, especially when they deal with any issue regarding Muslims, you will find a high level of hypocrisy. When we watch the demonstrations in Bahrain, we find out that there is almost a majority of women protesting in the streets, but they never show that since it is against Saudi and the US interest.

We are not pushing for feminism in Islam, we are only pushing for women's Qur'anic and Sharia rights, based on Islam.

Regarding Saudi Arabia, the United States takes hypocrisy to another level. The point I would like to make is that when you deny women of participating in society, you are cutting off half the potential of the society and half of the contributions of the society.

The other thing that you do is that you are making the society imbalanced, because who is raising a family is both father and mother. The both give a perspective to the future of children and the development of the family. Having only one gender in the society, will affect the development of the society and will cut off the capability of that society. So when you look at Saudi Arabia, you see that it's not only the puppet of the West, but it chokes off its own potentials in its own society. Saudi Arabia is on a continuous path of suicide; political, social, economic and moral.